Using a forwarder for FCL cargo? You still need to comply with SOLAS
Shippers that use forwarders to move full-container-load boxes will not escape responsibility to comply with global container weight rules even if they are not officially the “shipper” under the carrier’s bill of lading.
Since they do not physically see or handle the cargo, some forwarders that move full-container-load, or FCL, boxes on behalf of shippers will require their underlying shippers to comply with the Verified Gross Mass rule under the Safety of Life at Sea Convention. The SOLAS rule, to take effect on July 1, requires the shipper on the carrier bill of lading to physically weigh the cargo using one of two methods and to provide a VGM document to the carrier whether electronically or in hard copy.
But in situations where the shipper is a forwarder that moves its customers’ FCL cargo under its own bill of lading, the forwarder typically has no physical contact with the containers or cargo and therefore must rely on the shipper to provide the VGM. Thus the FCL customer of a forwarder, even if it’s not the actual “shipper” officially required under SOLAS to supply the VGM, will still have to provide a VGM to the forwarder in order to enable the forwarder to move the container without incurring delays. It is likely that containers that arrive at terminals without a VGM will be delayed since they can’t be legally loaded until a VGM is somehow obtained.
“We will be requiring a valid VGM that is in compliance with the rules,” said Bill Rooney, vice president for trade management for North America at Kuehne & Nagel. “We will require customers to meet the requirement.”
That requirement — indeed the big change from existing, longstanding practice — is that the shipper physically weigh the cargo and provide a document, the VGM, verifying that that the cargo has been weighed using one of two methods and is signed by an individual representing the shipper company. “We are a carrier relative to our customer. We are an agent. We don’t actually load the cargo” except in cases of less-than-container-load cargo, which is a small minority of the ocean container freight handled by Kuehne & Nagel and the other major sea freight forwarders.
The two methods are to weigh the fully loaded container, known as Method 1, or to weigh the contents of the container including any stowage and bracing materials and add that to the unladen weight, or tare weight, of the container printed on the outside of the box, which is known as Method 2.
Rooney said that with only three months remaining until the rule takes effect, there remains substantial confusion among shippers, particularly with respect to potential penalties for non-compliance and allowable tolerances from the stated VGM. A country-by-country breakdown of published national guidelines by the World Shipping Council has information from only 10 countries out of 162 SOLAS signatories that will be implementing the rule.
But at the same time, knowing that carriers are saying they cannot legally load containers unaccompanied by a VGM under SOLAS, shippers are, or need to be, preparing to be in compliance even if not everything is known about how individual origin countries will implement the rule. “We are telling our customers to proceed toward compliance,” Rooney said.